[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] 5 year plan & Inovation

[Michael Niedermayer]

On Wed, Apr 17, 2024 at 04:22:03PM +0200, Lynne wrote:
> Apr 17, 2024, 15:58 by michael at niedermayer.cc:
> 
> > Hi all
> >
> > The pace of inovation in FFmpeg has been slowing down.
> > Most work is concentarted nowadays on code refactoring, and adding
> > support for new codecs and formats.
> >
> > Should we
> > * make a list of longer term goals
> > * vote on them
> > * and then together work towards implementing them
> > ?
> >
> > (The idea here is to increase the success of larger efforts
> >  than adding codecs and refactoring code)
> > It would then also not be possible for individuals to object
> > to a previously agreed goal.
> > And it would add ideas for which we can try to get funding/grants for
> >
> > (larger scale changes need consensus first that we as a whole want
> >  them before we would be able to ask for funding/grants for them)
> >
> > Some ideas and why they would help FFmpeg:
> >
> > * Switch to a plugin architecture
> >  (Increase the number of developers willing to contribute and reduce
> >  friction as the team and community grows)
> >
> 
> Just no.
> 
> 

> > * ffchat
> >  (expand into realtime chat / zoom) this would
> >  bring in more users and developers, and we basically have almost
> >
> 
> Better leave that for others.
> There's an infinite amount of discord clones already.

iam not following that genre that much ...
so let me ask
are there any that
* preserve privacy (discord is not secure/private)
* allow audio / video / text chat
* scalable
* need no central server

?


> 
> 
> >  all parts for it already but some people where against it
> > * client side / in browser support
> >  (expand towards webapps, webpages using ffmpeg client side in the browser)
> >  bring in more users and developers, and it will be costly for us
> >  if we let others take this area as its important and significant
> >
> 
> Maybe. Some WASM-based converter would be helpful.

i think jb once said you where working on something
I do think this would be very cool


> Though it may put us on fire, as we'd be distributing binaries
> of our code which may cause issues with "rights holders".

We dont have to
it would be nice if someone does. But thats not strictly needed
it could be simply a
git clone https://ffmpeg.org/...
make ffwasm
and dumping the result on once own webserver

Important is, that its easy to use.
If one needs to spend hours installing packages and trial and erroring
until it works that would kill it

If someone just has to clone a repo and run ./configure ;make
then put that on ones own server and then can use it from their webstuff
or maybe a Dockerfile that automates the whole build
no idea whats the most convenient

> 
> 
> > * AI / neural network filters and codecs
> >  The future seems to be AI based. Future Filters and Codecs will use
> >  neural networks. FFmpeg can be at the forefront, developing these
> >
> 
> These take enormous amounts of compute power to
> train, vast amounts of good high-quality data, and at
> the end, you'd have something as lasting as wet paper,

reminds me of researchers saying in the ninties that videocrypt
needs dedicated hardware FPGAs implementing FFTs to decrypt in
bad grayscale quality.
around 1997 i implemented that in color without FFTs on my
pentium MMX in realtime to watch satelite TV others independantly
did similar things

When i hear needs "enormous amounts" for an algorithm
i tend to add a few "?" in my mind

But as a open source project with millions of users iam not
sure if "compute" would actually be such a big problem
you would only have to figure out how to distribute that
compute over volunteers


> because a competitor is literally weeks away, and they
> beat us with inferior methods by simply having vastly
> more compute than we do.

i think a question is, if one enjoys working on the
technology and algorithms



> 
> 
> > * [your idea here]
> >
> 
> We keep doing what we're doing. It's what we're good at.

Coordinating a bit more than that would help bigger efforts

thx

[...]
-- 
Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

Many things microsoft did are stupid, but not doing something just because
microsoft did it is even more stupid. If everything ms did were stupid they
would be bankrupt already.
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